The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have recently released a National Coverage Analysis memo to decide how CMS will provide coverage for this innovative treatment. They have proposed coverage alongside a concept known as “evidence development.”

The United States health care system has been evolving at a rapid pace with attempts to control costs while also improving outcomes for patients. Cancer care is at the center of these debates with 15.5 million cancer survivors and per person treatment costs exceeding all other diseases. Policy and decision makers are shifting from a volume-based system to value-based care in an effort to ensure that patients are receiving high-quality care at the lowest possible price. Click here to learn more about our most recent published journal articles to delve deeper into our research into value-based care designs.

A new court ruling has the potential to change the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare). While nothing is changing immediately, it’s important for all people, including cancer patients, survivors, and their loved ones to understand what this means for them.

In May of 2018, the Trump Administration committed to lowering the costs of prescription drugs and out-of-pocket spending for patients. One of the ways in which the Administration suggested meeting this goal was by changing the information available to consumers in television ads that market medications, which lead to a new rule that would require pharmaceutical companies to disclose the “list price” of drugs.

President Trump recently signed two bills into law aimed at reducing patients’ out-of-pocket spending on prescription medications. The “Patient’s Right to Know Drug Prices Act” and the “Know the Lowest Price Act” address a practice known as “gag clauses.”

A new type of policy has been introduced that has the potential to put cancer patients at serious financial risk. You may not have heard of copay accumulators or accumulator adjustment programs before, so this blog will provide an overview of these policies to help prepare you in case you might be at risk of facing this barrier to affordable cancer care.

The Trump Administration has proposed several rules outlining new health insurance options that would provide lower cost insurance coverage to consumers. However, the Cancer Support Community (CSC) believes that these plans may not comply with the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare).

Over the past week, Congress and the Trump Administration have made progress on government funding and budgeting for the coming years. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 was passed into law and Trump released his 2019 proposed budget—which does not carry the rule of law but does highlight the Administration’s priorities in the coming year. Both of these policy documents include significant health care issues.